U.S. President Donald Trump gestures at the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, October 29, 2025. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
New York Times Editor Kathleen Kingsbury said a small minority of Republicans attempted to block President Donald Trump’s unilateral tariffs on Brazil (which are likely based on little more than that nation’s prosecution of Trump’s friend, Jair Bolsonaro, for attempting his own Jan. 6-style overthrow of Brazil’s democracy).
While the votes were not enough to successfully stymie Trump’s tariff — thanks to Republican leaders’ curtailing the power of that vote — Kingsbury said the move indicated the party’s first meager effort to control their party’s leader and his authoritarian-style push for more power.
Many Republicans oppose Trump’s brazen attempt to punish Brazil (and the price increase it forces upon American consumers for coffee, beef and bananas,) but they do so in silence, despite the law being on their side.
“The president doesn’t really have the power to declare tariffs. Trump made it happen by declaring a national emergency over the summer,” Kingsbury said.
“What do you think of when you think of an emergency? You think of a war, a tornado, a famine. You don’t think of trade policy,” argued Sen. Rand Paul, (R-Kent.), who was one of the voices voting to curtail Trump’s power grab.
But Kingsbury said what was remarkable about the Senate vote was how close it came to making a difference with its a razor thin 52-to-48 vote.
“That means five Republicans joined the Democrats to block Trump’s tariffs, which makes you wonder: If these Republicans can stand up to Trump’s tariffs, why aren’t they showing backbone on preventing millions of Americans from going hungry?” asked Kingsbury, referring to the threat of millions of Americans losing vital SNAP benefits and Trump’s health care budget threatening to spike healthcare costs for 20 million Americans by an average of 75 percent.
They could also stop the military from carrying out illegal international acts of blowing up Venezuelan boats and killing people without Congressional approval, said Kingbury, and they could use their power of oversight to prevent abuse by federal agencies as federal agents harass and descend upon Halloween parades in Chicago.
“The answer can only be that congressional Republicans are OK with such things, because they have the power to stop them and they just aren’t doing it,” said Kingsbury. “Remember, the founders gave Congress some of the most important powers of government, including the power of the purse, the power of war and the power to regulate foreign commerce. They wanted Congress to be the most dominant branch. Today, it’s the weakest.”
But it’s their choice, Kingbury argued, as a whole branch of government, under the thrall of one political party, surrenders its power.
“The fact that the Senate found enough of a spine to block Trump’s tariffs only shows how little they’ve done over the last nine months,” Kingsbury said. “It’s true that what we’re seeing from the executive branch can be shocking, but what we’re not seeing from Congress should be just as terrifying.”
Watch the New York Times presentation at this link.